If you are not involved in a transaction with the other eBay member, the new Contact an eBay Member and Ask Seller a Question features will allow you to send email to other users through an email forwarding system. In compliance with our Privacy Policy, eBay will not store a copy of your message and will not read these emails.

These changes will not affect how sellers and bidders in successful transactions email each other. In closed listings, sellers and winning bidders will still be able to request each other's email addresses. In open listings, sellers will be able to request all bidder email addresses as they do today.

I think this is long overdue. I suggested this to Ebay within two weeks of registering. Although this will make spotting shills and crooks a little harder, it will cut down the Spam tremendously.